Story by Pamela Sleezer, Joint Base Lewis-McChord Public Affairs Office.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Service members at Joint Base Lewis-McChord spent a week clearing out discarded trash and debris from the installation’s more than 86,000 acres of training grounds this week as part of spring cleanup week.
Between April 29 and May 3, Soldiers and Airmen patrolled through the most remote areas of JBLM and along busy highways that flow through training areas to clean up illegally dumped trash and household garbage. Tires, mattresses, containers filled with motor oil and even whole abandoned vehicles were among the items removed from JBLM training areas.
Ron Grantham, operations officer with JBLM’s Directorate of Plans, Training, Aviation and Mobilization, said most of the time, the illegal dumping is done by civilians who live near the base.
“A lot of times, they don’t even realize it’s JBLM property,” Grantham said. “They see an empty space along the highway, and they dump a mattress or a TV, having no idea that they’re actually dumping their trash on federal property.”
While base leadership works at combating the problem, Grantham said efforts are focused more on cleaning up the mess. Cleanup operations are conducted twice a year at JBLM, in the fall and the spring. Grantham said each time, more than 100 tons of trash is collected.
“So, that’s 200 tons of trash every year that is cleaned up from our training grounds,” Grantham said.
That also comes at a cost. Just to dispose of the 200 tons of trash illegally dumped on JBLM cost taxpayers about $26,000 – not counting the manpower and training hours dedicated to the cleanup.
The highest recorded amount of trash removal is 139 tons removed during the spring cleanup of 2023.
The results bring multiple benefits for the base; they help with ongoing beautification efforts, and they keep service members safe while training.
“Everything that we remove is, in my eyes, items that pose a very serious safety risk to the service members out training,” Grantham said. “First and foremost, we want to keep our service members safe, and this is how we accomplish that.”
